Fair Housing Act Never Fully Enforced, Walter Mondale Says

Throughout this month, many people have been considering the legacy of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was murdered in Memphis 50 years ago this month. A major part of that legacy is the civil rights legislation that his activism advanced, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act. Now, King had also been pressuring the Lyndon Johnson administration to craft legislation barring discrimination in housing, but it wasn't until after King's death in 1968 when riots broke out across the country that the president and Congress were moved to act. The Fair Housing Act aimed to end segregation and discrimination in mortgage and housing policy and to level the economic playing field.

Walter Mondale was a young senator from Minnesota at the time, and he helped write the law. Mondale, of course, would go on to become vice president of the United States, serving with Jimmy Carter. Recently, he wrote a piece for The New York Times, saying that the Fair Housing Act remains the most contested, most ignored and most misunderstood law. But he says it is as important as it was 50 years ago. And Walter Mondale joins us now from his office in St. Paul, Minn.